Informative/Expository

Before You Write

When you write an informative piece, it is important to know your topic, audience, and purpose before starting. Considering these aspects of your writing will help you focus on information that will be interesting and useful to your readers and help you choose an appropriate style.

Know your topic.

• • Define your topic, as specifically as possible.
    • Write down the topic or event that you will write about.
    • Think about what this is or means. Is it clear what you will write about, or is your topic too broad?
    • Narrow and adjust your topic until you have a clear focus for your writing.
  • Do background research on your topic.
    • Read about your topic in a few general sources, such as encyclopedias or newspapers.
    • Write down interesting facts you find.
    • Write down questions you have about your topic.
  • Think about the ‘5 Ws’ of your topic.
    • What is it?
    • Who is involved, or to whom is it relevant?
    • When did it happen, or when does it matter?
    • Why is it important?
    • Where did it happen, or where is it relevant?

Know your audience.

• • Identify your audience—who, or what group, are you writing to?
    • Think about who will read your writing. Is it required for an instructor or manager? Are you distributing it personally to your readers?
    • Think about where people will read it. Will it be published somewhere that people will be able to access it? What final form will it take: article, paper, internal report, or webpage?
  • Consider what your readers already know about your topic and what they will find interesting.
    • Gauge how familiar your readers are with your topic. How much background is necessary? How much explanation do you need to include?
    • Consider your readers’ interests. How does your topic relate to them? What aspects of it will they be interested in?
    • Identify what aspects of your topic you should focus on and what information you need to provide for your readers.

Know your purpose.

• • Think about why you are writing an informative piece.
    • Are you writing to educate your readers about your topic?
      • Why do your readers need to know about your topic?
      • What background information do you need to provide?
      • Which details are necessary for your readers to understand your topic?
    • Are you providing a report or update on a recent event?
      • What background knowledge do your readers have about the event?
      • What details will they be interested in?
      • Why is it important for your readers to find out about it?
    • Are you responding to an assignment or request?
      • What requirements must you meet?
      • Are there specific questions you must answer?
      • How long should your final document be, according to your assignment or request?
  • Identify your goals for writing about your topic.
    • Think about what you want your readers to get out of your piece.
    • Note these objectives.
    • Use these goals to focus your research and writing.

The First Draft

Once you have identified your topic, audience, and purpose, research your topic. Gather all of the notes, data, and quotations that you will need to write your piece. When you are ready to write, use these guidelines to help you create an effective, well-written piece.

Focus/Purpose

• • Formulate a main idea, or thesis, that specifies what you will write about.
    • Tailor your main idea to your audience and purpose for writing.
    • Make your main idea specific enough that you can cover it fully in the amount of writing you plan to do.
    • Identify subtopics or aspects of this main idea that you will explain in your writing.
    • Try to make your main idea interesting and something that your readers do not already know about, or show them an aspect of your topic with which they may not be as familiar.

Development/Elaboration

• • Make your introduction interesting and informative.
    • Start with an interesting statement, fact, or quotation that will catch your readers’ attention.
    • Provide relevant background information that will help your readers understand the topic of your essay.
    • Build up context by providing basic facts and information about your topic.
    • Tell your readers what they will read about and why they should keep reading your piece.
    • Make sure your topic and main idea are clear from your introduction.
  • Include a thesis statement at the end of your introduction that directly states your main point.
    • State the subject or topic of your paper.
    • Indicate how you will address your topic—what aspects will you focus on?
    • Include the major subtopics that you will discuss, in the order that you will discuss them.
    • Use specific, descriptive wording to make your thesis statement focused and concise.
  • Explain and illustrate your topic through your subtopics.
    • Select subtopics that will help your readers understand your topic and its importance.
    • Focus on aspects of your topic that will be interesting to your readers.
    • Look at how your subtopics relate to your main idea, and arrange them in an order that will make sense to your readers. Some common organizational strategies for informative writing are:
      • Chronological order: if you are writing about an event, describing its happenings in chronological order may be appropriate. However, you may want to choose a more topic-oriented approach, as chronological order may be boring for your readers.
      • Order of importance: starting with the most important aspects of your topic and drilling down into the less important details is a common way to organize informative writing.
      • Order of validity: ordering your subtopics and evidence by how valid—believable or reliable—they are may be a good approach.
      • General to specific: starting with the most general description of your topic, and drilling down into specifics or smaller parts, can help your reader get the ‘big picture’ and then fill in the details.
    • Support your subtopics with examples, facts, anecdotes, and other evidence.
      • • Use your research to generate interesting facts and supporting details for each of your subtopics.
        • Try to gather a range of evidence types, from statistics to quotations and anecdotes (short stories).
        • Arrange evidence or supporting details in a logical, convincing order. Evidence is usually arranged according to type and reliability:
          • ‘Hard’ facts: Hard, indisputable facts, such as definitions, accepted explanations, and many figures or statistics are considered the most reliable form of evidence and usually introduced first.
          • Formal reports and statements: Authorized reports, such as police or court reports, and formal statements are also treated as reliable forms of evidence.
          • Examples: Real or hypothetical examples are the next most reliable source of evidence, as they provide a ‘perfect’ or ideal explanation of the topic or phenomena.
          • Anecdote and quotation: These first-hand accounts provide only one person’s experience of the topic or phenomena. They help to illustrate the topic but are not as reliable as other forms of evidence.
  • Make sure the reader has enough background or general knowledge before introducing complex evidence and ideas.
  • Group information and evidence into paragraphs by topic. In each paragraph:
    • Begin with a topic sentence that states the subtopic you will discuss in the paragraph.
    • Show how the subtopic relates to your main idea, or thesis statement.
    • Provide more explanation of the main point of the paragraph in one or two sentences.
    • Introduce the fact, quotation, or piece of evidence that you are using to support your subtopic. Tell how it relates to the main topic of your paragraph and your overall point, your thesis statement.
    • State your details and evidence.
    • Explain the significance of this piece of evidence toward your main point. What does it say about your topic?
    • Conclude each paragraph with a sentence that sums up the point of the paragraph. Use concluding sentences to transition into the idea of the next paragraph, “bridging” ideas between paragraphs.
  • Sum up your points in a conclusion.
    • • Restate your thesis in different words, wrapping up the main points of your essay. Avoid phrases like in conclusion or to conclude.
      • Summarize each subtopic and point that you make in the essay.
        • Reiterate how these relate to your main idea and why they are important.
        • Stick to the information you have already presented in your essay. Conclusions are not the place to add surprise twists or finally show the reader what you are talking about—if you find you want to do this, revise your thesis and body paragraphs to include this ‘surprise’ information.
        • Wrap up with a final statement that leaves the reader with something to think about.
        • Close with a witty or interesting observation about the topic.
        • Remind the reader of a lesson to be learned from your topic.
        • Refer the reader to additional resources, if applicable to your topic and purpose.

Organization

• • Organize your ideas and information so they flow logically.
    • Examine your thesis statement or main idea.
      • Does it capture all of the points that you make in your writing?
      • Does it address your subtopics in the same order you do in your paper?
    • Identify ‘background information’ you provide.
      • Is it relevant to your main idea?
      • Do you include enough for your readers to understand your topic and follow along?
      • Make sure necessary background information is provided early so that readers can make sense of the rest of your piece.
  • Order your subtopics in a way that the reader will be able to follow.
    • • Move from most important or least important, or from general to specific, to maximize your readers’ ability to understand your topic.
      • Be consistent in your organization of information and ideas—stick to one strategy throughout your piece.
  • Use transitions to show how ideas are related to one another.
    • Think about how ideas or information are related, and use meaningful transitions.
      • Are they sequential, occurring in a particular order?

Choose from the following words to show sequential relationships:

• • Are the pieces of information ordered by importance, in which the significance of one piece of information is greater than another?

Choose from the following words to show relationships of importance:

• • Are they cause-and-effect, in which one piece of information or action causes another?
  • Choose from the following words to show cause-and-effect relationships:

• • Are the pieces of information logically related, in which one piece of information leads to another through reasoning?

• • Use appropriate transitions at the beginnings of sentences, linking ideas. Follow transitional words and phrases with commas when they are used at the beginning of a sentence.
  • Use transitions to build complex sentences, joining ideas within a sentence and showing how they are related.
    • When using a transition to introduce the first idea in a complex sentence:
      • Do not place a comma after the transition.
      • Write out the first part of the sentence, including a subject and a verb.
      • Place a comma after the first part of the sentence to separate it from the second idea that you include. Make sure the second part of the sentence has a subject and a verb as well.

Example: Since the bald eagle was placed on the endangered species list, its population has recovered remarkably.

• • • When using a transition between ideas in a complex sentence:
      • • Write out the first part of the sentence, including a subject and verb.
        • Place a semi-colon (;) after the first part of the sentence.
        • Write the selected transition, followed by a comma.
        • Write the second part of the sentence, including a subject and verb.

Example: Winds from the tropical storm reached record velocity; however, no property damage has been reported in our area.

• • Use transitions to begin paragraphs, showing how the subtopic in one paragraph relates to the one before it.

Language/Style

• • Write in a style that is appropriate for your audience and purpose.
    • Use a level of language that your readers will be able to understand.
    • Use a level of formality that is appropriate for your purposes:
      • Class papers = very formal
      • Newspaper articles = more formal
      • Professional writing = usually formal, depending on audience
      • Advertisements = informal
      • Online publishing (blogs) = more informal
      • Personal letters to friends = very informal
    • Avoid slang and jargon, unless your audience will understand and expect this kind of language use.
    • Use proper spelling and grammar.
  • Choose descriptive, active words to convey your points convincingly.
    • Choose your words carefully—avoid words that may have offensive or derogatory meanings to your audience.
    • Replace words that are vague or overused with more precise words. For instance:
      • Replace a lot with an estimated or real figure, such as twice daily or 200 dollar’s worth.
      • Replace really with extremely, impressively, awfully, etc.
      • Replace nice with friendly, amenable, considerate, etc.
      • Replace good with pleasing, talented, delicious, etc.
  • Make sure you are using words correctly. Look up words whose meaning you do not know.
  • Use the Lexipedia word choice tools to help you find more descriptive words and synonyms and their meanings.